Saturday, April 21, 2012

On Tuesday, we told you about 6-year-old Drew Cox, who in one day raised $10,000 for his dad Randy's cancer treatment—all through his lemonade stand.

In the story, we linked to a GiveForward donation's site established by Randy's longtime friend Tameka Royal, an ER nurse in Texas. After more than 12,000 Yahoo readers linked to the article on Facebook, Royal says the GiveForward page went viral.

"I was unaware it was on Yahoo News but I knew something happened and the story got out because the GiveForward site just went viral," Royal said in an email to Yahoo News. "I never imagined we would surpass the goal I set of $5,000. I am praising God with every donation because this family has not asked for anything but our prayers."

Donations to the page, 48 hours later, have surpassed $20,000. Royal plans to keep the donations page open until June 1.

Royal says she has been friends with Randy since the two were classmates in high school, and she has known his wife, Tonya, even longer. The pair took a dance class together when Royal was just 6 years old, the same age as Randy's son Drew.

"Many people have asked what made me make the site. Well, when I heard of Randy's diagnosis my heart dropped for him and his family," Royal said.

"I wanted to do something to help and allow others to help so I prayed about it. Then the morning Tonya posted Drew's lemonade stand for his dad on Facebook, I was like, I have to make a site were people who hear or see the story and say 'oh I wish I could give,' would be able to give."